Chapter XVIII.
NEWPORT, NOVEMBER, 1776, TO OCTOBER, 1779.
In November, 1776, when Sir William Howe seemed
to be carrying everything before him, he detached
some seven thousand men, of whom about one half
were Hessians, to occupy Newport. This corps landed
without opposition, and spent three years in Rhode
Island, lying, during the larger part of the time,
inactive, and suffering during the last years from scarcity
of flour and of wood. There is little doubt that the
men could have been better employed elsewhere.
With six thousand, or even with four thousand more
soldiers at his command, Clinton might have acted
more promptly and efficiently than he did for the
assistance of Burgoyne. We may well suppose,
however, that Sir William Howe, having taken possession
of Newport when he thought he had no better use for
his troops, was afraid of losing prestige if he
abandoned the town. He drew some regiments from the
garrison in the summer of 1777, before the opening of
the campaign.
On the whole, I do not think that the service in Rhode Island could have been very trying to the soldiers. If flour was scarce, meat was plenty. The inhabitants were shy at first, and shut up their families. On Shelter Island, when the strangers approached, the country people ran away; believing, says one, that the
